Panionios F.C.

Panionios

Full name	ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ. (Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Society of Smyrna)
Nickname(s)	Κυανέρυθροι (Cyan-Reds) Ιστορικός (Historic) Πάνθηρες (Panthers)
Founded	14 September 1890, as Orpheus Smyrni
Ground	Nea Smyrni Stadium Athens, Greece
Capacity	11,700
Owner(s)	Nikos Zamanis (33.5%) Christos Daras (33.5%)
Chairman	Christos Daras
Head Coach	Marinos Ouzounidis
League	Superleague Greece
2015–16	Superleague Greece, 5th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Departments of Panionios G.S.S.
Football	Basketball	Basketball Women's
Volleyball	Waterpolo	Handball
Athletics	Gymnastics	Swimming
Cycling	Judo	Chess

Panionios G.S.S. FC (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), or with its full name Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis (Greek: Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Society of Smyrna) is a Greek association football club based in Nea Smyrni suburb of Athens, part of Panionios G.S.S. multi-sport club. Founded in 1890 in Smyrna as Orpheus Smyrni, they are one of the oldest and most historic Greek teams.

In the wake of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, Panionios was transferred to Athens. They have won two Greek Cups (in 1979 and 1998), while they were runners-up in the Greek Championship during the 1950-51 and 1970-71 seasons. They have won also the 1971 Balkans Cup and reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1998–99 season.

The team currently competes in the Super League Greece. They play their home games in Nea Smyrni Stadium with a capacity of 11.700 seats.

Early history

Nea Smyrni Stadium

The club was founded in 1890 in Smyrna (Σμύρνη) currently İzmir, under the name of "Orpheus Music and Sports Club" by part of the Greek population living in the city during the Ottoman era. In 1893 some Orpheus members keen on sports formed a separate organization, the "Gymnasion Club", and started holding yearly sports competitions. In 1898, Orpheus and Gymnasion merged again to form Panionios GSS. Members of the Panionios sports club represented Greece in all international track & field games until these developed in the modern Olympic Games.

After the Greek military defeat in 1922 the club was forced to transfer firstly in Athens and later to the Athenian suburb of New Smyrna where lots of the population of Smyrna immigrated. The club has a tradition of cultivating all major sports and was the first Greek club to establish a track and field division for women, in 1925. Another major example of the club's contribution to Greek sports rests in the fact that it was Panionios that introduced Basketball and Volleyball in Greek sports society.

With the gradual transformation of men's football and basketball into professional sports, Panionios FC and Panionios BC became privately owned clubs operating under the auspices of the traditional "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. To date, Panionios remains the only sports club in Greece that was awarded the Golden Cross from the Athens Academy as a recognition of the club's rich and continuous enrichment of Greek sports.^[1]

Recent history

Panionios has spent nearly its entire history in the Greek First Division (now called 'Superleague'), having missed out from competing in Greek football's top division only twice in its more than 100-year history . Within this, Panionios rose quite often to high levels, with top achievement in terms of the league being the 2nd position that the club reached in 1971, losing the title to AEK Athens.

Alexandros Tziolis

Panionios has produced all three major Greek strikers of the 1980s, namely Nikos Anastopoulos (later of Olympiakos), Thomas Mavros (later of AEK Athens), and Dimitris Saravakos (later of Panathinaikos). Other notable players coming out of the club in the 1990s include Nikos Tsiantakis (later of Olympiacos) and Takis Fyssas, later of Panathinaikos, Benfica and member of Greek national team. Within the 2000s another five Greek national team players came out from the club, namely Alexandros Tziolis, Evangelos Mantzios, Nikos Spiropoulos, Grigoris Makos and Giannis Maniatis.

The club had faced financial difficulties which triggered the transfer of the ownership to the municipality of Nea Smyrni in 1992. Those difficulties remained all through the 1990s forcing the team's league performance to drop. Yet, it remained in a high level and managed to win the Greek Football Cup competition in 1998 and participate successfully in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup the year after, reaching the quarterfinals. In December 2001 large part of the club's shares moved away from the Municipality back to private hands, where working around bankruptcy legislation the club was renamed to Neos Panionios FC, to avoid the threat of relegation from the first division.

Constantinos Tsakiris period

Álvaro Recoba

In 2004, shipowner Constantinos Tsakiris was elected president of the "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. Panionios won the women's Basketball Championship in 2006, the club's first in a team sport, and the women's volleyball team advanced to the first division. In 2006, Tsakiris acquired 85% of Neos Panionios FC stock and started restructuring the team from scratch. He changed the name of the club back to the original Panionios GSS FC and hired German coach Ewald Lienen who, during his first year created a team that made it to the top 5 of the Greek Super League and on to the UEFA Cup. Tsakiris has also unveiled an ambitious plan to have the aging football ground and athletics track demolished, and build a modern multi-sport arena in its place. Apart from a 12.000 capacity football stadium, the proposed complex would include facilities for basketball, volleyball, aquatic sports, track & field, boxing, gymnastics, wrestling and more.^[2]

On the summer transfer window of 2008, the club signed Uruguay national team members Álvaro Recoba and Fabián Estoyanoff, but shortly after Lienen resigned by mutual consent on November 11, 2008, reason being disagreement with the Panionio's board.^[3] On November 12, 2008 Greek coach Takis Lemonis was hired ^[4] and resigned on December 3, 2008 after the refuse of Panionio's board to accept Lemoni's request to dismiss three members of Panionio's coaching and management staff.^[5][6] Assistant coach Joti Stamatopoulos lead the club until the end of the season. He was replaced by Belgian manager Emilio Ferrera.

Under the Tsakiris presidency, the club built its own training facility just outside Athens in the region of Koropi. The training ground is operating since 2008 but was fully completed in 2009.

Crest and colours

Panionios' colours are blue, red and white, mainly used as trim or as an alternative. The first emblem of Panionios in Smyrna was a figure of Nike. On the appearances of the team there was a characteristic diagonial strip, which can be seen today in the crest of the team.

1908

1924

1930

1997–98

2012–13

2013–14 (A)

2014–15 (A)

Current sponsorships:

• Great Shirt Sponsor: Joker
• Official Sport Clothing Manufacturer: Tempo
• Official Broadcaster: NOVA Greece

Honours

Domestic

• Superleague Greece
  • Runners-up (2): 1951, 1971
• Greek Cup
  • Winners (2): 1978-79, 1997-98 ^[7]
  • Runners-up: 1952, 1961, 1967, 1989
• Athens FCA Championship
  • Winners (1): 1951

European

• Balkans Cup
  • Winners (1): 1971
  • Runners-up (1): 1986
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
  • Quarter-finals (1):1998–99

European matches

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
1964–65	Intertoto Cup	Group C1	Malmö FF	1–1	1–5
			Dinamo Zagreb	2–2*
			Toulouse	0–3*
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1st Round	Hansa Rostock	2–0	0–3
1971–72	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Atlético Madrid	1–0	1–2
		2nd Round	Ferencváros	0–2 (bye)	0–6
1979–80	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1st Round	Twente	4–0	1–3
		2nd Round	IFK Göteborg	1–0	0–2
1987–88	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Toulouse	0–1	1–5
1998–99	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1st Round	FC Haka	2–0	3–1
		2nd Round	Apollon Limassol	3–2	0–1
		Quarter-finals	Lazio	0–4	3–0
2003–04	UEFA Cup	1st Round	FC Nordsjælland	2–1	1–0
		2nd Round	Barcelona	0–3	0–2
2004–05	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Udinese	3–1	0–1
		Group stage	Newcastle United	0–1		4th
			Sporting CP		1–4
			Dinamo Tbilisi	5–2
			Sochaux		0–1
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Sochaux	0–1	2–0
		Group stage	Helsingborgs IF		1–1	4th
			Galatasaray	0–3
			Austria Wien		1–0
			Bordeaux	2–3
2008	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2nd round	OFK Beograd	3–1	0–1
		3rd round	Napoli	0–1	0–1

• In the summer of 1964 Panionios took part in the Cup Rapanos in place of Olympiacos FC, who retired after two games, against Toulouse (2–4) and Dinamo Zagreb (0–4). The results were calculated in the standings without replay for Panionios. Panionios so had three games: two at home Kaftantzoglio Stadium, which had a lights away with Malmo. The away game against Toulouse, which refused to be played by Olympiakos, ended 3–0 for the French team.

European record

Season	Achievement	Notes
UEFA Cup Winners Cup
1979–80	Second Round	eliminated by IFK Göteborg
1998–99	Quarter-finals	eliminated by Lazio
UEFA Cup
1971–72	Second Round	eliminated by Ferencváros
1987–88	First Round	eliminated by Toulouse
2003–04	Second Round	eliminated by Barcelona
2007–08	Group Stage	4th position in Group H
UEFA Intertoto Cup
2008	Third Round	eliminated by Napoli

Current squad

As of 18 January 2016^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Nikolaos Papadopoulos 3 DF Christos Tasoulis 5 DF Vasilis Patsatzoglou 6 DF Evangelos Ikonomou 7 MF Panagiotis Korbos 8 MF Bruno Chalkiadakis 9 FW Anastasios Karamanos (on loan from Olympiacos) 10 MF Kenan Bargan 11 FW Karim Ansarifard 12 GK Lefteris Astras 13 GK Sokratis Dioudis (on loan from Club Brugge) 14 FW Anastasios Bakasetas 16 DF Konstantinos Vlachos

No. Position Player 18 MF Giorgos Bletsas 19 MF Giorgos Masouras 20 DF Leonidas Argyropoulos 21 MF Manolis Siopis 22 GK Andreas Gianniotis (on loan from Olympiacos) 23 DF Stauros Mitkas 24 DF Stelios Pozatzidis 26 MF Leonardo Villalba 33 MF Fanis Tzandaris (on loan from Olympiacos) 37 MF Valentinos Vlachos 44 DF Spyros Risvanis 64 MF Nikos Katharios

Notable former players

• 

  Rafik Djebbour

• 

  Fabián Estoyanoff

• 

  Boško Balaban

• 

  Andreas Samaris

Greece Nikos Anastopoulos Stelios Aposporis Stathis Chaitas Labros Choutos Giorgos Dedes Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos Christos Emvoliadis Takis Fyssas Georgios Galitsios Thanasis Intzoglou Dimitrios Kiliaras Vangelis Koutsopoulos Andreas Lagonikakis Grigoris Makos Ioannis Maniatis Antonis Manikas Evangelos Mantzios Spiros Marangos Stathis Mavridis Dimitris Mavrikis Thomas Mavros Kostas Mitroglou Dimitris Nalitzis Kostas Nestoridis Theologis Papadopoulos Takis Papoulidis Yiannis Pathiakakis Nikos Pentzaropoulos Andreas Samaris Antonis Sapountzis Dimitris Saravakos Thanasis Saravakos Nikos Spyropoulos Nikos Tsiantakis Georgios Tzavelas Themis Tzanetis Alexandros Tziolis Leonidas Vokolos Albania Arjan Bellaj Sulejman Demollari Hamdi Salihi Foto Strakosha Algeria Mohamed Chalali Rafik Djebbour

Argentina Dario Fernandez Ariel Ibagaza Carlos Casteglione Australia Travis Dodd Austria Jürgen Macho Azerbaijan Araz Abdullayev Belgium Stéphane Demol Bosnia & Herzegovina Edin Cocalić Miodrag Medan Brazil Alexandre D'Acol Luciano Marcelinho Paulista Marcelo Pletsch Bulgaria Todor Barzov Krasimir Chomakov Milen Georgiev Canada Tamadani Nsaliwa Cameroon Olivier Boumale Cape Verde Noni Lima Côte d'Ivoire Gilles Domoraud Croatia Boško Balaban Dario Krešić Davor Kukec Ivica Majstorović Cyprus Simos Krassas Marios Nikolaou Kyriacos Pavlou Czech Republic Jaroslav Drobný Martin Latka Václav Svěrkoš Martin Vaniak Petr Vlček

Egypt Ahmed Magdy England Marco Gabbiadini Gary Owen Mark Robins Paul Tisdale France Nicolas Lourdes Alain Raguel Cédric Varrault Finland Mehmet Hetemaj Njazi Kuqi Georgia Davit Kvirkvelia Levan Tskitishvili Germany Michael Delura Matthias Langkamp Markus Pröll Ghana Bennard Yao Kumordzi Iran Karim Ansarifard Hungary Norbert Tóth Liberia Joe Nagbe Isaac Pupo Zizi Roberts Mali Sékou Berthé Fousseni Diawara Malta André Schembri Norway Roy Wassberg Poland Adam Majewski Portugal Luís Lourenço Ricardo Vaz Tê Vitorino Antunes

Romania Marcel Coraş Marian Ivan Saint Kitts and Nevis Keith Gumbs Serbia Zoran Jovičić Saša Zimonjić Mićo Smiljanić Spain Thomas Christiansen Sito Riera Slovakia Mario Breska Miroslav König Lubomir Meszaros Thomas Oravec Attila Pinte Slovenia Goran Sankovič Ermin Šiljak South Africa Patrick Phungwayo Dillon Sheppard Sweden Markus Jonsson Turkey Erol Bulut Uruguay Fabian Estoyanoff Carlos Marcora Juan Martín Parodi Álvaro Recoba Wales Gareth Roberts Yugoslavia Milinko Pantić Vladimir Vermezović

Former coaches

Sophocles Magnes (1909–22) Georgios Roussopoulos (1940–45) Kostas Negrepontis Nikos Zarkadis (1957) Nikos Pentzaropoulos (1957) Giannis Helmis (1959–60) Ioannis Skordilis (1960–65) Nikos Zarkadis (1966–67) Dezső Bundzsák (1968–70) Joe Mallett (1970–74) Dan Georgiadis (1973–76) Panos Markovic (1976–77) Dan Georgiadis (July 1, 1978–Dec 13, 1978) Panos Markovic (Dec 14, 1978–June 30, 1979) Siegfried Melzig (July 1, 1979–Dec 3, 1979) Lakis Petropoulos (Dec 6, 1979–June 30, 1980) Salimis Milosevic (July 1, 1980–Dec 29, 1980) Lakis Petropoulos (Dec 30, 1980–June 30, 1981) Panos Markovic (July 1, 1981 – May 2, 1983) Stathis Chaitas (May 2, 1983 – June 30, 1983) Egon Piechaczek (July 1, 1983–Feb 29, 1984) Stathis Chaitas (March 1, 1984 – May 20, 1984) Nikos Alefantos (May 21, 1984 – April 5, 1985) D. Kleoboulou (caretaker) (April 6, 1985 – June 30, 1985) Urbain Braems (July 1, 1985 – June 30, 1988)

Bo Johansson (July 1, 1988–Nov 10, 1989) Helmut Senekowitsch (Nov 20, 1989–June 30, 1990) Momčilo Vukotić (July 1, 1990–Jan 1993) Ioannis Kyrastas (Jan 1993-June 30, 1993) Andreas Michalopoulos (July 1, 1993-Jan 10, 1995) Dimitris Mavrikis (caretaker) (Jan 11, 1995–Jan 24, 1995) Emerich Jenei (Jan 25, 1995–Nov 27, 1995) Nikos Alefantos (Nov 27, 1995-Jan 29, 1996) C. Emvoliadis (caretaker) (Jan 29, 1996–Feb 19, 1996) Ioannis Gounaris (Feb 20, 1996–May 6, 1996) Stathis Chaitas (May 6, 1996 – June 30, 1996) Ioannis Kyrastas (July 1, 1996–Nov 14, 1997) Christos Emvoliadis (Nov 15, 1997–June 30, 1998) Ronnie Whelan (July 1, 1998 – June 30, 1999) Jacek Gmoch (July 1, 1999-Nov 22, 1999) Makis Katsavakis (Nov 24, 1999–April 12, 2000) Christos Emvoliadis (April 12, 2000 – June 30, 2000) Zoran Filipović (July 1, 2000–Dec 18, 2000) Dimitrios Barbalias (Dec 19, 2000–Feb 5, 2001) Martti Kuusela (Feb 6, 2001–Aug 22, 2001) Dumitru Dumitriu (Aug 30, 2001–June 30, 2002) Jozef Bubenko (July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2004) Karol Pecze (July 1, 2004–Oct 22, 2004) Giorgos Vazakas (Oct 23, 2004–April 16, 2005) D. Barbalias (caretaker) (April 18, 2005 – June 30, 2005)

Josef Csaplár (July 1, 2005-Sept 11, 2005) Nikos Pantelis (caretaker) (Sept 11, 2005–Oct 1, 2005) Jozef Bubenko (Oct 16, 2005–Feb 20, 2006) Vangelis Vlachos (Feb 21, 2006–May 30, 2006) Ewald Lienen (June 15, 2006–Nov 11, 2008) Takis Lemonis (Nov 12, 2008–Dec 2, 2008) Joti Stamatopoulos (Dec 3, 2008–June 30, 2009) Emilio Ferrera (July 1, 2009–Jan 26, 2010) A. Mantzios (caretaker) (Jan 26 2010–Feb 2, 2010) Georgios Paraschos (Feb 3, 2010–April 25, 2010) Mikael Stahre (April 25, 2010–Oct 28, 2010) A. Mantzios (caretaker) (Oct 28 2010–Nov 7, 2010) Georgios Paraschos (Nov 8, 2010–Nov 17, 2010) A. Mantzios (caretaker) (Nov 16 2010–Dec 9, 2010) Takis Lemonis (Dec 10, 2010–Nov 22, 2011) Apostolos Mantzios (Nov 24, 2011–April 30, 2012) Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos (May 29, 2012–Feb 16, 2013) Konstantinos Panagopoulos (Feb 18, 2013–July 7, 2013) Nikos Pantelis (July 9, 2013–Dec 16, 2013) Konstantinos Panagopoulos (Dec 16, 2013–Feb 15, 2014) Dimitris Terezopoulos (caretaker) (Feb 16, 2014–Feb 17, 2014) Nikos Anastopoulos (Feb 18, 2014–May 5, 2014) Dimitris Terezopoulos (May 5, 2014–Jan 1, 2015) Marinos Ouzounidis (Jan 2, 2015–)

See also

• Panionios
• Panionios B.C.
• Nea Smyrni Stadium

References

1. "Panionio's History". Panionio's Official Website.
2. "Panionio's New Stadium".
3. "Panionio's Official Announcement". Panionio's Official Website. November 11, 2008.
4. "Panionio's Official Announcement" (in Greek). Panionio's Official Website. November 12, 2008.
5. "Takis Lemonis Leaves Panionios". Goal.com. December 3, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
6. "Panionio's Official Announcement" (in Greek). Panionio's Official Website. December 3, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2008.
7. "Statistics". Panionio's Official Website.
8. "Panionios G.S.S. squad" (in Greek). Superleague Greece. Retrieved 9 September 2012.

External links

• Official football club website
• Official basketball club website